Connectria Guides Customers to XenApp Hosting with Citrix QuickStart Program

With the proliferation of tablets, smartphones and other devices, software companies face greater complexity in ensuring that their customers enjoy a consistent application experience. Host Analytics, a provider of Windows® finance and accounting software, needed a way to standardize its customers’ experience across different browsers and devices. At the time, Host Analytics was licensing its software; however, the company became interested in Citrix XenApp as the leading solution for delivering applications as a service. XenApp could ensure a high-performance app experience on any device, via any browser, and provide a platform for introducing the Software as a Service (SaaS) model as a competitive differentiator.

After evaluating a number of providers, Host Analytics approached Connectria Hosting, a Citrix Service Provider (CSP) based in St. Louis, MO, because of its strong XenApp expertise. During initial discussions, the Connectria team made a strategic recommendation: instead of implementing XenApp in its own datacenter, Host Analytics should consider having Connectria host, manage and support the XenApp system.

“We explained the benefits they could achieve by having our experts set up their apps to run on XenApp, host the XenApp servers in our datacenters, manage and update the system and transparently deliver their apps to customers on their behalf,” said Scott Azzolina, Connectria’s vice president of marketing. “Instead of getting heavily involved with system administration, hosting would enable them to focus on their core competency – software development.”

Host Analytics was intrigued by this turnkey value proposition and impressed with Connectria’s knowledge of Citrix technology, including the many engineers with Citrix certifications. However, the factor that won the business was the Citrix QuickStart Program, a “try before you buy” approach that gives potential customers a free, 90-day trial of XenApp. Citrix provides up to five complimentary XenApp licenses.

Following the successful trial, Richard Broome, CIO of Host Analytics, moved ahead with the XenApp hosting project, which also includes Citrix Receiver. “Connectria had a plan from day one, which ultimately led to a very smooth implementation within four weeks. We feel we really accomplished our goal and are certain we chose the right partner.”

Connectria will be promoting its Citrix QuickStart Program in a joint webinar with Citrix and Microsoft on December 12, and is continuing to expand its services and expertise by leveraging a range of Citrix resources. For example, Connectria recently became a VAR, and its engineers are pursuing diamond validation, which is performed by Citrix CSP architects to ensure adherence to Citrix best practices for multi-tenancy and confirm redundancy of partner datacenters and scaling capabilities over 100,000 users. As a CSP, Connectria works closely with Citrix channel staff in its region to obtain leads on prospective hosting customers.

Scott concluded, “As a growing business, we rely on Citrix resources, as well as the top industry reputation of Citrix and XenApp, to expand our business and spread the word about the value of the managed hosting model.”